The invention relates to a connector, comprising a housing of insulating material and a metal plate attached to a surface of the housing, wherein said surface is provided with a plurality of pegs of insulating material and said metal plate is provided with a plurality of fixation holes co-operating with said pegs to attach the metal plate to the housing, and to a method for manufacturing such a connector.
EP-A-0 930 812 discloses a connector of this type, wherein the metal plate is fixed on the housing by melting the pegs. The known manner of fixation of the metal plate to the housing is disadvantageous as heating the pegs causes degeneration of the insulation material resulting in an unreliable fixation of the metal plate and/or problems regarding location or fixation of the contact elements accommodated in the housing. Moreover the fixation step in manufacturing the connector is relatively time consuming and involves relatively high production cost.
The invention aims to provide an improved connector of the above-mentioned type.
To this end the connector of the invention is characterized in that the passage of each fixation hole of the plate is smaller than the cross-section of the corresponding peg of the housing, wherein the plate is further provided with an entrance hole for each fixation hole, said entrance hole debouching into the fixation hole and having a passage larger than the cross-section of the corresponding peg.
In this manner a connector is obtained, wherein the metal plate is fixed to the housing without any heating of the insulating material. When the pegs of the housing have been forced from the entrance holes into the fixation holes, narrow grooves will have been formed in the pegs by the metal plate and these grooves co-operate with the area of the metal plate enclosing the fixation holes to hold the metal plate on the surface of the housing. Thereby a reliable fixation is guaranteed.
The invention further provides a method for manufacturing a connector of this type, comprising providing a connector with a housing of insulating material and a metal plate, wherein the metal plate is attached to a surface of the housing by means of a plurality of pegs provided on said surface and fixation holes made in the metal plate, wherein the method of the invention is characterized in that the metal plate is provided with an entrance hole for each fixation hole debauching into the corresponding fixation hole, wherein the entrance holes are made with a size for receiving said pegs with play, and the fixation holes are made with a passage smaller than the cross-section of the pegs, wherein the metal plate is placed on said surface with the entrance holes receiving the pegs with play and the metal plate is moved along said surface such that the pegs are forced into the fixation holes.
In this manner the manufacturing step for fixation of the metal plate to the housing is relatively simple, wherein the metal plate can be fixed to the housing at relatively low manufacturing coast at high manufacturing speed. Moreover, the fixation of the metal plate does not cause any degradation of the insulating material.